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Cassell Coliseum continues to be a nightmare for the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils following their 77-72 loss to the 20th-ranked Virginia Tech Hokies on Tuesday night.
This marks the third straight season a Duke team ranked in the Top Five has been upset on the road by Virginia Tech. The Blue Devils were playing their second consecutive game without Zion Williamson because of a knee injury.
After Duke went on a 7-0 run to tie the score at 70 with 1:52 remaining, Ty Outlaw put the Hokies back on top for good with a three-pointer from the corner.
Kerry Blackshear Jr. scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Virginia Tech in the win.
RJ Barrett overcame a slow start to finish with 21 points. Cam Reddish added 17 points and six rebounds.
Coach K Needs to Reduce Burden on Star Players
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski is in a difficult position at this point in the season. The Blue Devils started the day tied with Virginia and North Carolina atop the ACC standings with identical 12-2 records.
In addition to fighting for the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament, the Blue Devils are in the mix for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament.
Given those stakes, it’s understandable that Krzyzewski would ride his best players as much as possible. He’s also putting a burden on those stars, which highlights how low Coach K’s faith in his roster depth is.
The trio of Reddish, Barrett and Tre Jones have played a combined total of 990 out of 1,080 minutes since Jan. 26. Barrett and Reddish played all 40 minutes against Syracuse on Saturday, while Jones got two minutes of rest during the game.
Because the shots Williamson would normally take are being spread out, Duke’s offense has actually become more predictable. Javin DeLaurier and Alex O’Connell combined to score seven points and took two field goals.
Krzyzewski told reporters after the win over Syracuse that he was going to give O’Connell and Joey Baker more time on the court.
“He’s played well in practice,” Krzyzewski said. “Obviously, we haven’t shot the ball well except for that [road] Virginia game, and Alex and Joey are two of our better shooters, so he’ll continue to get stuff.”
Baker made no impact off the bench against Virginia Tech. The freshman, who was supposed to redshirt this season, attempted one field goal.
Factoring all this in, it’s easy to see why Krzyzewski wants to use Barrett, Reddish and Jones as much as possible.
But there’s also the big-picture consideration worth exploring. The Blue Devils don’t need another ACC championship—regular season or tournament—because their success will only be measured by what happens in the NCAA tournament.
Assuming Williamson returns at some point, all of Duke’s current concerns will go away. For now, though, asking Barrett, Reddish and Jones to play virtually every minute of every game is only exposing how limited this roster is.
Giving players like Baker and O’Connell more time to establish an identity now would serve to help the Blue Devils in March. Baker was part of the team’s revered 2018 freshman class. His redshirt is gone, so there’s no reason to keep hiding him.
Krzyzewski’s excessive use of his Big Three hasn’t helped Duke develop the talent around them to prepare the team for the most important time of the season.
Cam Reddish Needs to Be More Aggressive in Zion’s Absence
If there was any benefit for Duke with Williamson going down, it was the possibility that Reddish would start to play more like the player everyone expected him to be out of high school.
This is what Reddish’s Jan. 2018 scouting report from ESPN.com had to say about his ability:
“That talent has had him under the microscope since a young age, and while he’s had some ups and downs, his progression has been largely linear as he’s gotten more aggressive, learned how to create his own shot, and become an increasingly dangerous shooter. There’s more upside left to discover as he learns to be assertive within the flow of offense, gets more consistent with his approach, and buys into maximizing his defensive tools.”
Four months into Reddish’s college career, he remains an enigma on a game-to-game basis. He scored a season-high 27 points in the Feb. 20 loss to North Carolina, but it came on 10-of-23 shooting with no assists and four turnovers.
Reddish followed up that showing with just five points on 2-of-11 shooting against Syracuse.
Per Sports Illustrated‘s Jeremy Woo, one of Reddish’s biggest problems is a tendency to settle for three-point shots:
“While he is more than capable of getting hot from outside and swinging a game, it’s begun to feel like he’s launching threes simply to compensate for his struggles to create good shots otherwise. On the season, Reddish is shooting 39.8% on 118 two-point shots, and 33.2% on 208 three-pointers. The disparity in attempts is due in part to the ball-dominant Barrett and hyper-efficient Williamson, but it’s simply not the profile of a player who should ever be counted on to shoulder an offense.”
That trend continued against Virginia Tech, as Reddish took six of his 13 attempts from behind the arc.
Reddish has occasionally flashed more potential than just the three-point specialist he’s become for the Blue Devils. He had six rebounds and six assists in a Jan. 26 win over Georgia Tech.
With a listed height of 6’8″, Reddish has the size and length to be a versatile asset for Krzyzewski. He just chooses so often to sit back and let the game happen around him.
Until Williamson gets back on the court, Coach K needs Reddish to start showing the skills he did in that game last month against Georgia Tech.
What’s Next?
Duke will return home Saturday to take on Miami at 4 p.m. ET. Virginia Tech has one week off before playing its final road game of the regular season at Florida State on March 5.
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